This new class will bring the total number of inductees to 48. Each Walk of Fame member’s name is displayed within stainless steel and terrazzo sidewalk medallions. The Walk was created in 2006, and is a project of Music City, Inc., the charitable foundation of the Nashville Convention & Visitors Bureau. It's sponsored by Gibson Guitar, the Great American Country (GAC) TV network, the city of Nashville and Metro Parks.

Click to see a gallery of photos from Sunday, Oct. 24's Country Music Hall of Fame Medallion Ceremony (this image of Alison Krauss performing a tribute to inductee Don Williams: Sanford Myers/The Tennessean).

Two country music innovators — one a shy master of subtle emotion, the other a loquacious, camera-ready force of nature — entered the Country Music Hall of Fame Sunday night at the Hall’s Medallion Ceremony.

Don Williams, the quiet one, was unable to attend his own induction because of a bout with bronchitis. Jimmy Dean, who brought country music into American households with hits including “Big, Bad John” and with television shows that introduced such talents as Roy Clark, Mel Tillis and Connie Smith, died in June, after hearing of his pending induction but before his Hall entry could be made official.

“I started school at 6 years old,” said Tillis, now 78 and the author of new comedy album, You Ain’t Gonna Believe This... “I didn’t know I stuttered, but I found out in a hurry, ’cause the other kids were laughing at me. I came home after the first day and asked, ‘Mama, do I stutter?’ ‘Yes you do, Melvin.’ I said, ‘Well, they’re laughing at me.’ She said, ‘If they’re gonna laugh at you, give ’em something to laugh about.’”

He did, and it worked, and it still does. Tillis figured he’d have to give up his invariably and unavoidably lengthy stories once he began touring as a musician. Grand Ole Opry great Minnie Pearl re-routed his thinking on the matter. He was performing with Pearl, playing guitar and singing a song (Tillis doesn’t stutter when he sings), and he had instructed her fiddle player, Roger Miller, to introduce him and to thank the audience for him when he’d finished singing.

“She called me over after two or three days and said, ‘If you’re going to be a singer, you need to introduce the song and thank the people when you finish.’ I said, ‘Miss Minnie, they’ll laugh at me.’ She said, ‘No, they’ll laugh with you,’ and so I started talking onstage then. Next thing I knew, I was doing the Johnny Carson show. I was the first one that I know of to come out as a stutterer on television and be accepted.”Continue reading →

Almost five months since May floodwaters poured into the Grand Ole Opry House, drowning the historic stage under 46 inches of river water, the Opry is coming home on Tuesday, Sept. 28 with a multi-generational, all-star line-up.

“This lineup we have on the 28th will probably go down in history as one of the greatest ... in the Opry’s history,” said Grand Ole Opry vice president and general manager Pete Fisher. “But I have to say I’ve found this to be one of the easiest shows to book. It’s just another example of how artists give back to the community and the Opry as a whole. It’s going to be great to see the Opry House come back to life and the circle come back to life.”

The Opry didn’t cancel a single show after being displaced from the Grand Ole Opry House, instead relocating to various locations around Nashville while repairs and renovations were being made. Now that repairs are complete — the bill totaled more than $20 million — Jason Aldean said all that’s left to do is let fans know the Grand Ole Opry House is open for business.Continue reading →

Over the past four years, the West Coast-based Academy of Country Music has chosen to award its special awards recipients and non-televised category winners in a separate and relaxed Nashville ceremony, rather than during the ACM’s tightly scripted spring awards show in Las Vegas.

Monday’s fourth annual ACM Honors found the star-packed Ryman Auditorium filled with heartened award-winners and with well-wishers who seemed to appreciate the chance to pay appropriate homage, rather than to merely clap during quickie camera time.Continue reading →

In his more than a half century in the entertainment business, Country Music Hall of FamerMel Tillis has done plenty. He’s starred in movies, scored numerous hit country songs, toured the world, written songs for others (including the devastating “Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love To Town”) and won a Country Music Association entertainer of the year prize.

The guy has done everything but release a comedy album. And so on September 21, he’ll do just that.

Tillis’ You Ain’t Gonna Believe This is due for release on Show Dog-Universal Music. The album contains comedy bits with titles including “I Thought He Only Had One Eye,” “Duck Foot,” “Foot Foot” and “Peed On The Matches.”

“As one who stutters, comedy has very much been a part of my whole life,” Tillis said in a statement. “As a matter of fact, it’s been my crutch. The stories that I tell on and off stage are 95 percent true. If they need a little help, I help ‘em out every now and again.”

The Opry will celebrate a “Spirit of Nashville” day on Oct. 2 by opening up the Opry House for free tours of the renovated main room and backstage area and by presenting music on the Opry Plaza.

“Everyone will be awed and pleased with the result,” said Grand Ole Opry Group president Steve Buchanan, who said the renovations to all areas of the buildings will allow the Opry to properly celebrate its 85th birthday.Continue reading →

Bill Phillips, a country singer known for his yearning, emotional vocals and for his role in introducing Dolly Parton to the record-buying public, died Monday, Aug. 23 at age 72.

Born in the western North Carolina town of Canton, Mr. Phillips first came to attention as part of Miami, Fla. station WMIL's multi-artist jamboree. Two duets with Florida-reared Mel Tillis reached the Top 30 of Billboard’s country singles chart in 1959 and 1960, but it was not until 1966, when Mr. Phillips recorded a song by then-unknown Dolly Parton, that he experienced major success.

Parton was living in something akin to poverty when Mr. Phillips heard her demo of “Put It Off Until Tomorrow,” a song she wrote with her uncle, Bill Owens. Impressed with the composition and also with the “girl singer” on the tape, Mr. Phillips recorded the song with Parton singing prominent harmony vocals. (Listen to it above.)

The song became Mr. Phillips’ first Top 10 hit, and it launched Parton’s career. Months after “Put It Off Until Tomorrow” peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard country singles chart in April of 1966, Parton secured cuts from Skeeter Davis and Hank Williams Jr., and she soon signed a record contract.Continue reading →

“It is an honor to be asked again by the Academy of Country Music to be a part of the awards honoring the people who make our business work on such a core level," Womack said in a statement. “For the artists, the songwriters, the people who bring this music to the fans, these awards recognize the exceptional contributions of the people who create the foundation for everything we do -- and any time you can recognize that kind of contribution, it is a wonderful thing to be a part of.”